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CNN Live At Daybreak

International News Desk

Aired August 18, 2003 - 05:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from peace hopes in Liberia to the same in Iraq, we're covering it all for you.
And our senior international editor David Clinch is here with us now to give us a sense as to how we're doing it all.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Fredricka, good morning.

Well, we are covering all of the stories in Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, all of those stories. But two fascinating stories from Iraq that I want to mention today, both photograph stories at this point. We hope to get some video related to both of these stories later today.

The first is a very interesting story coming out, first of all, in the tabloids in London this morning. The two British soldiers searching a house in Basra, in southern Iraq, searching, apparently chasing some suspects thought to be terrorist suspects, went into a building, found a box filled with ammunition, or what they thought was filled with ammunition surrounded by weapons. The box was locked. They opened the box. This is the box, a photo we're just receiving now from the Ministry of Defense in London.

Inside the locked box, they found a two day old baby.

WHITFIELD: No.

CLINCH: They found a baby.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness.

CLINCH: This is a picture, a close up of the baby. The baby was not breathing.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

CLINCH: The two soldiers, two quite young British soldiers, squatties, as they call them in England, immediately gave mouth to mouth to the 2-year-old, resuscitated the baby, worked out eventually -- and this is something we're trying to clarify, that the baby had been prematurely born, apparently abandoned by its mother, brought the baby to the local hospital in Basra, found the mother, tracked her down, brought her to the hospital. They've now reunited the baby and the mother. It's not clear whether the mother will keep the baby. We're not sure. But they've saved the life of a baby in Basra. So that's some good news from Iraq today. They named the baby Rose. This, which squadron are they from? I think Lancaster, the Rose of Lancaster, for anyone British historian. So they've named the baby Rose. Of course, we'll probably find out the baby's name from the mother eventually.

So a great story there from Basra.

WHITFIELD: That's a beautiful story.

CLINCH: And then another story, we actually filed on this on Friday, but for obvious reasons with the power outage here in the U.S., the story was not very highly profiled. But it's more newsworthy again today. Photographs of Saddam Hussein, the 4th I.D., the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq, sick and tired of being fired upon, shot at by these Fedayeen Saddam loyalists, find these photographs. They didn't make them themselves, but found them on the Internet or were given them in some form, decided they'd put them up in their headquarters, first of all, to cheer themselves up.

You can see Saddam in drag, Saddam as Elvis, whatever. Now, first of all, it's just to cheer themselves up. Now we hear they're actually going to put these posters in poster form up around Tikrit, in that area, to try to actually -- how can I put this politely -- make the Fedayeen so angry that they'll actually come out, and in the words of the 4th I.D., come out and face them in a fight.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I have a feeling it'll make a few people angry. In Tikrit, his hometown?

CLINCH: Absolutely. No doubt about it. Now, of course, we don't know absolutely yet for sure that they're getting permission to put them up.

WHITFIELD: That sounds like playing with fire, actually.

CLINCH: But if they do, no doubt that it'll make people angry. It's, of course, not clear what it might do for the general populous, still very sympathetic, in some ways, to Saddam. But, again, the 4th I.D. sick and tired of being fired at in a cowardly way, attacked in what they say is a cowardly way. They want these people to come out and fight them. They're putting these pictures up to try and get them to come out. So we'll see.

WHITFIELD: Adding fuel to the fire.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: It sounds like a dangerous notion.

CLINCH: OK.

WHITFIELD: All right, David, thanks very much.

CLINCH: No problem.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired August 18, 2003 - 05:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from peace hopes in Liberia to the same in Iraq, we're covering it all for you.
And our senior international editor David Clinch is here with us now to give us a sense as to how we're doing it all.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Fredricka, good morning.

Well, we are covering all of the stories in Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, all of those stories. But two fascinating stories from Iraq that I want to mention today, both photograph stories at this point. We hope to get some video related to both of these stories later today.

The first is a very interesting story coming out, first of all, in the tabloids in London this morning. The two British soldiers searching a house in Basra, in southern Iraq, searching, apparently chasing some suspects thought to be terrorist suspects, went into a building, found a box filled with ammunition, or what they thought was filled with ammunition surrounded by weapons. The box was locked. They opened the box. This is the box, a photo we're just receiving now from the Ministry of Defense in London.

Inside the locked box, they found a two day old baby.

WHITFIELD: No.

CLINCH: They found a baby.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness.

CLINCH: This is a picture, a close up of the baby. The baby was not breathing.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

CLINCH: The two soldiers, two quite young British soldiers, squatties, as they call them in England, immediately gave mouth to mouth to the 2-year-old, resuscitated the baby, worked out eventually -- and this is something we're trying to clarify, that the baby had been prematurely born, apparently abandoned by its mother, brought the baby to the local hospital in Basra, found the mother, tracked her down, brought her to the hospital. They've now reunited the baby and the mother. It's not clear whether the mother will keep the baby. We're not sure. But they've saved the life of a baby in Basra. So that's some good news from Iraq today. They named the baby Rose. This, which squadron are they from? I think Lancaster, the Rose of Lancaster, for anyone British historian. So they've named the baby Rose. Of course, we'll probably find out the baby's name from the mother eventually.

So a great story there from Basra.

WHITFIELD: That's a beautiful story.

CLINCH: And then another story, we actually filed on this on Friday, but for obvious reasons with the power outage here in the U.S., the story was not very highly profiled. But it's more newsworthy again today. Photographs of Saddam Hussein, the 4th I.D., the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq, sick and tired of being fired upon, shot at by these Fedayeen Saddam loyalists, find these photographs. They didn't make them themselves, but found them on the Internet or were given them in some form, decided they'd put them up in their headquarters, first of all, to cheer themselves up.

You can see Saddam in drag, Saddam as Elvis, whatever. Now, first of all, it's just to cheer themselves up. Now we hear they're actually going to put these posters in poster form up around Tikrit, in that area, to try to actually -- how can I put this politely -- make the Fedayeen so angry that they'll actually come out, and in the words of the 4th I.D., come out and face them in a fight.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I have a feeling it'll make a few people angry. In Tikrit, his hometown?

CLINCH: Absolutely. No doubt about it. Now, of course, we don't know absolutely yet for sure that they're getting permission to put them up.

WHITFIELD: That sounds like playing with fire, actually.

CLINCH: But if they do, no doubt that it'll make people angry. It's, of course, not clear what it might do for the general populous, still very sympathetic, in some ways, to Saddam. But, again, the 4th I.D. sick and tired of being fired at in a cowardly way, attacked in what they say is a cowardly way. They want these people to come out and fight them. They're putting these pictures up to try and get them to come out. So we'll see.

WHITFIELD: Adding fuel to the fire.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: It sounds like a dangerous notion.

CLINCH: OK.

WHITFIELD: All right, David, thanks very much.

CLINCH: No problem.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com